Former Ontario Conservative leader's number one priority is to build a downtown relief subway line.

“I would really like to be mayor,” a deflated John Tory told the Star days after finishing a close second to David Miller in the 2003 Toronto mayoral race.

Eleven years later, Tory has revived his mayoral dreams, ending months of speculation as to whether he would face another gruelling election campaign that could see his long-held ambition remain unfulfilled.

Any hesitancy is understandable.

While active in municipal, provincial and federal politics for more than 30 years — his first and only electoral victory remains in 2005, when, a year after being elected leader of the Ontario Conservative party, he coasted to an easy win in a byelection that secured him a seat in the legislature.

“I will never forget this moment,” he said at the time. “I will never forget the trust you have placed in me.”

Tory was tagged as the Conservatives’ best shot at toppling premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals in 2007. It was not to be after Tory was forced to backpedal on a $400-million campaign promise to extend funding to Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Hindu and other religious schools.

The provincial Conservatives had a disastrous election showing that fall and even Tory failed to win a seat of his own.

“Being in public life is challenging,” he said following a speech in Toronto.

He remained leader despite a less-than-overwhelming show of support at the party’s annual meeting, but stepped down by 2009.

Fast-forward to 2014, and Tory and Olivia Chow are the early favourites in the contest to beat Mayor Rob Ford.

Tory’s formula of leadership is a conservatism of free enterprise coupled with fiscal responsibility. The key is for him to persuade voters that his “unparalleled experience” in the business world and passion for Toronto will put him in the driver’s seat in the race to be mayor of Canada’s largest city.

“John knows how to successfully lead, manage and obtain results from large, complex organizations,” his website says. Tory has the support of a many prominent Torontonians. They include former deputy mayor Case Ootes, who ran Ford’s 2010 transition team; Liberal provincial minister Brad Duguid; Gail Nyberg, executive director of the Daily Bread Food Bank; and Ontario PC president Richard Ciano, whose business partner, former Ford campaign chief Nick Kouvalis, will be part of Tory’s campaign.

Despite his Conservative pedigree, Tory believes new taxes are needed to pay for transit expansion. His priority is what he calls the “the Yonge St. subway relief line.” It would run in a U shape down into the downtown core from the east and west sides of the Bloor-Danforth line, and possibly from as far north as Eglinton Ave., relieving pressure on the crowded Yonge-University-Spadina line.

He has recently maintained a high-profile public presence as the chair of CivicAction, an advocacy group, and as the host of a radio talk show on Newstalk 1010.

Tory is positioning himself as a consensus builder and willing listener whose inclusive style achieves results. “You’re not going to be able to tackle gridlock in the streets if you’ve got gridlock at city hall,” he said recently.

Best known as: Political strategist Warren Kinsella has described Tory as “the best mayor we never had.” That remains to be seen.

Education: B.A. University of Toronto (1975), Law degree Osgoode Hall law school York University (1978.) He was called to the bar in Ontario in 1980.

Resumé: MPP, Leader of Ontario PC Party and official opposition, CEO of Rogers, commissioner and chairman of the Canadian Football League, chair on revitalizing Ontario Place, founding member and former chair of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance. Host of Live Drive with John Tory

Personally speaking: Tory, born in 1954, and his wife have been married since 1978 and have four grown children.

Accomplishments/failures: Many credit him with saving the Canadian Football League from going out of business in the ’90s. He performed the job for $1 a year. Not so well remembered was his management of federal Tory leader Kim Campbell’s ill-fated election campaign in 1993 when the party was reduced to two seats. Tory also lost to David Miller in 2003. In 2007, as leader of the Ontario PC party, his faith-based education idea helped give Dalton McGuinty a massive majority.

What we would do if elected: His number one priority is to build transit — a downtown subway relief line is a top priority — and ease traffic congestion. Tory is pledging to keep taxes low, especially property taxes.

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